OCCASION:
Army Air Force flight training as part of the Women's Flying Training
Detachment (WFTD), a training program initiated on September 15, 1942, by Jacqueline Cochran. This group was preceeded on September 10, 1942, by the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) led by Nancy Love. On June 28, 1943, these two groups were combined into the
Women AirForce
Service Pilots
(WASP). Lois, along with 82 other women, had received a telegram from Nancy Love to join the WAFS but she declined at that time.

Fifinella
, a female gremlin, was designed by Walt Disney in January 1943, and became the
mascot for my mother and others.

SHE STARTED FLYING IN 1939 AFTER HER BROTHER CONVINCED HER TO PUT UP MOST OF THE MONEY TO BUY A SINGLE ENGINE TAYLORCRAFT. ONE DAY SHE SET OUT ON A WEEKEND TRIP TO MEET
JACKIE COCHRAN
, DIRECTOR, WOMEN'S FLYING TRAINING, AT A RECRUITMENT MEETING FOR THE WOMENS FLYING TRAINING DETACHMENT (WFTD). SHE TOLD THEM SHE WAS ONLY THERE TO MEET MISS COCHRAN BUT SHE AGREED TO TAKE THE PHYSICAL. BESIDES, NO NEED TO WORRY, SHE PROBABLY WOULDN'T PASS. THE NEXT THING SHE KNEW SHE WAS IN HOUSTON FOR FLIGHT TRAINING. THE "WOOFTEDDIES" FINISHED THEIR TRAINING IN
SWEETWATER
, TEXAS, at
Avenger Field.
While Lois was there, she received her banjo and played for her friends.

Upon graduation from basic flight training, Brooksie reported to Romulus Army Air Base in Romulus, Michigan where she was supposed to support the ferry command. She and several other were only there overnight and were sent to Camp Davis in North Carolina for five months of tow target training. Then she went to Liberty Field in Hinesville, Georgia, for radio control targeting training and then on to Biggs Army Air Field in El Paso, Texas, where she put her advanced training to work. After the WASPs, she became a certified flight instructor in El Paso. Later she went back to teaching which she was doing before the WASPs. She retired from teaching and now lives with her son in Friendswood, Texas.

THE BIGGS FIVE

1939 - her first airplane,
a Taylorcraft.

1944 - Member of the 3rd Airforce:
A picture similar to this
can be found on page 563
of Sisters in the Sky,
Volumn II-The WASP.

During a test flight, she was riding as the backup pilot for a radio
controlled PQ-8, shown below, when without warning, she had to take control of the plane. But it was too late and a ridge of dirt across the runway collapsed the nose gear and flipped the plane. Her two front teeth were knocked out and she had to wait for almost an hour before the other two WASPs could return with help to get her out. The writing on the picture says,
"They chopped it up to get me out."

When the landing gear would not lock down on her A-24, she was given permission to do a belly landing. The only damage was the bent prop. The maintenance crew had the plane flying the next day. She was given a
Letter of Commendation
.

After the WASPs were disbanded on December 20, 1944, my Mother and her best friend,
Lois Hollingsworth Ziler
, became flight instructors. They both worked for Border Aviation Service in
El Paso, Texas.

FLYING MILESTONES FOR LOIS, Part 2

EVENT

DATE

500 Hours As Civilian Instructor

9/19/1945

2,000 Total Hours

2/2/1946

1,000 Hours As Civilian Instructor

7/21/1946

1,500 Hours As Civilian Instructor

2/15/1947

Soloed Sam Hailey, future husband

3/3/1947

3,000 Total Hours

5/19/1947

Soloed father, Charles Brooks

6/19/1947

2,000 Hours As Civilian Instructor

8/25/1951

Last logged entry, over 3,600 hors

5/20/1978

Based on pilot logs.

In June of 1947, a special moment was captured by the local paper, the El Paso Herald Post. Lois is shown with her oldest, 65, and youngest, 16, students.
Gardner Bride on the right, had just completed his first solo. What was really special this day was that her oldest student was her father, Charles W. Brooks.

1994, Sweetwater Texas, 50th Anniversary and Reunion. She's pointing to her name on the Walk of Fame.

This picture of me was taken just before a half hour flight as co-pilot in a North American AT-6 Trainer on November 6, 1994. My most memorable moment was looking 'up' through the canopy at the sailboats on Galveston Bay as the pilot took us through some dive bombing maneuvers.